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My Solutions to Climate Change

Wanna slow climate change? Don't think about us rich people in the "developed" nations. Work with the poorest people first in Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Eliminate open fire cooking to reduce black carbon. Removing black carbon is a quick way to reduce at least some atmospheric warming as these particulates stay in the air for only a few weeks. Ending this form of carbon pollution has an immediate and local effect as well, on the health of women and children, on the time and economics of looking for fuel, on deforestation, and even on crop yields. More at http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/06/1088365/-Short-Term-Climate-Forces-Black-Carbon-Methane-and-Tropospheric-Ozone

My friend Bob Lange is building and installing more efficient cookstoves with the Maasai people in Tanzania now. You can learn more and contribute, if you wish,athttp://www.maasaistovessolar.org

Here in the developed world, we can take individual and collective actions to prepare ourselves for the emergencies and disasters of climate catastrophe and partner it with helping the poorest because Solar IS Civil Defense. If we get serious about it, it could make a difference:http://www.youtube.com/v/u0mjqjgZ64E

However, zero emissions is still not enough. We have to take greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. The usual suspects like geoengineering but most of the suggestions are, excuse me, "big swinging dick" technologies and mechanistic sledge hammers rather than systemic interventions that respect the complex ecological and geophysical systems we have to deal with. There are ecological design solutions available or possible, but we don't hear enough about them:http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/06/1097724/-Ecological-Design-for-Geoengineering

Lots we can do for ourselves and on our own that, if done collectively and publicly, might drive our politicians to do what is necessary. Even if it doesn't, we will have done what we could personally to protect ourselves and our families even though our governments may still be twiddling their thumbs.

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